WARMAN, A, M. 


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EDWARD B. 


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PSYCHIC SCIENCE SERIES 
Mo. V 


SUGGESTION 


I. PsycHoLoey. 
II, PeERsonaLt MAGNETISM. 
III, TaeLpeEPpatTHY—MENTAL 
TELEGRAPHY—THOUGHT 
TRANSFERENCE — Minp 
READING—MUSCLE 
READING. 

. HYPNOTISM, 

. SUGGESTION. 

. SPIRITISM. 
CLAIRVOYANCE AND 
CLAIRAUDIENCE — PRE- 
MONITIONS AND IMPRES- 
SIONS. 

No. VIII. Hinpu PHILOSOPHY IN 
A NUTSHELL. 


By EDWARD B. WARMAN, A.M. 
Each, 18mo, 50 cents, net. 


A. C. McCiure & Co. 


PUBLISHERS 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 


UNIVERSITY OF ILLING: 


PSYCHIC SCIENCE SERIES 


SUGGESTION 


BY 


EDWARD B. WARMAN, A. M. 


AUTHOR OF *“* THE PHILOSOPHY OF ExPRESSION,”’ 
“THE VorcE—How To TRAIN It,” “GET 
WELL; KEEP WELL,” ETC., ETC. 


CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
1910 


CopPpyrIGHT 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
1910 


Published September 24, 1910 


Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London, England 


The Lakeside Press 
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


aden 
24 MTS W 2C Head Be 


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FEB 19 37 


| a arn | 
TOF 


PREFACE TO THE SERIES 


plea are two reasons why I 
have written these books: first, 
in response to thousands of my pupils 
throughout this country and Canada 
who desire the instruction in a 
more tangible form than simply 
through the medium of the voice; 
second, that the general public may 
have the result of thorough, honest, 
and unbiassed investigation extend- 
ing throughout a period of thirty-five 
years 
Having kept abreast of the times, 
I am fully aware of the conclusions 
other writers have reached, especially 
on spiritism; and am further con- 
scious of the fact that, with few ex- 
ceptions, I do not, in the main, agree 
with these. However, my decisions 
have 1n no way been influenced by any 
writer, not even by my friend, the 
late Dr. Thomson Jay Hudson, whom 
I first met in 1899. When our paths 
converged, we found we had been 
Vv 


PREFACE TO THE SERIES 


travelling on parallel lines for twen- 
ty-five years. Comparing notes, I 
was pleased to learn that we had ar- 
rived, practically, at the same con- 
clusions; therefore, there may appear 
to be much of Hudson in my writings, 
and it could not well be otherwise, 
especially on spiritism. I felt highly 
honored to have so great an authority 
bear so corroborative testimony. 

By consulting the topics treated it 
will be observed that I have covered 
a much wider field than those who 
have preceded me, having touched 
upon every phase of Psychic Phe- 
nomena. This I have done as briefly 
and concisely as possible and practi- 
cable, and while my decisions are 
positive, they are neither arrogant 
nor dogmatic. 

HK. B. W. 


Los ANGELES, CAL. 
August 1, 1910. 


A oan following letter, which speaks 
for itself, is from the late Dr. 
Thomson Jay Hudson, the author of 
‘‘The Law of Psychic Phenomena,”’’ 
etc. : 


No. 10 Nintu St., S. E., 
WaAsHINGTON, D. C., May 2, 1900. 
I consider Mr. Edward B. Warman the peer of any 
man in his line; in fact, I know of no one who covers 
so wide a field. His experiences in Mental Telegraphy 
are equal to any I have ever known; he is the most 
practical psychologist it has ever been my pleasure to 
meet; his explanation of Hypnotism removes all fear; 
his sifting of the grains of truth from the Christian 
Science doctrine leaves nothing to be desired; his 
exegesis of Spiritism is scientific and logical, acknowl- 
edging, as every thorough investigator must, the 
alleged phenomena, but denying, as every logician 
must, the alleged cause. His Suggestions to Mothers 
are simply invaluable. 
I heartily commend him for his sound doctrines. 


. 


“Words are things, and a small drop of ink 
Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces 
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, 

think.” 


INTRODUCTORY 


HE following pages have been 
devoted to the Law of Sugges- 
tion, not only as a healing art but as 
regards its effect upon various phases 
of life. 

Suggestive therapeutics is no 
longer in the experimental stage but 
has become an established fact. The 
Law of Suggestion correlates all sys- 
tems of mental healing; and all heal- 
ing by mental processes is dependent 
upon the law of suggestion con- 
sciously or unconsciously applied. 

Reputations are ruined, hearts are 
broken, homes are blighted, health 
destroyed, ofttimes, by one little 
word, look, or act, which, in itself, 
may have been only suggestive. On 
the other hand, by the same law of 
suggestion, reputations have been 
saved, hearts made lighter, homes 
made brighter, and health restored. 

1x 


vl 


INTRODUCTORY 


Not only are we governed in a 
greater or lesser degree by the sug- 
gestions of others, but in a marked 
degree by our auto-suggestions. It 
behooves us, then, to understand the 
workings of that law. 

HK. B. W. 


PSYCHIC SCIENCE SERIES 


SUGGESTION 


Faita an Essentian ELement — Psycuo- 
THERAPY — Tue OCurist Hearing — 
THovuaut, AN Origin or Disrase — Ap- 
VERSE SvuceEstions— Cast Our Frar— 
Frar anp DratH— SucerstiveE THERA- 
PEUTICS — Powrer oF Tuovucut In AvrTO- 
SUGGESTION — IMAGINATION AND SUGGESTION 
—ImaGinaTIon ExTrRAorDINARY — CHANGE 
oF CruimatTE Dip Ir — SuGGESTIONS TO AND 
FoR Motuers — For CHILDREN BacKWARD 
“in Stupizrs — SucaGEsTion as AN Epucator 
— Wuy Reprat Svuaaestions — CauTions 
to Moruers — SuccEstTions To THE DyING 
— Mernop ror Azpsent TREATMENT — A 
REMARKABLE Cask orf SuGGEsTIoN — A Frew 
EXPERIENCES IN HEALING. 


ROM the dawn of creation to the 

present moment there has been 

no greater curative agency known to 

man than Suggestion; and at no time 

in the history of this nation has its 

power been so generally recognized 
as at the present. 

The Emmanuel Church Movement, 
of which much has been written, is 
antedated by the Emmanuel Move- 

11 


SUGGES PIOe 


ment which had its initiative in the 
teachings and practices of the lowly 
Nazarene; but it has taken the 
churches nearly two thousand years 
to recognize the fact that man has a 
body as ‘well as a soul; to come to a 
realizing sense that somehow, some- 
where, the teachings and practices of 
the healing art have been lost to the 
Church, while, in reality, the power 
exists to-day as it did in the days of 
Christ. 


FAITH AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT 


Whether you are projecting your 
thought to help another, or giving 
suggestions to yourself (autosugges- 
tions), faith is absolutely essential — 
faith on your part, faith on the part 
of the recipient. 

Mental healing or mental aid of 
any kind depends upon mental atti- 
tude and conditions. As has been so 
well said by the late Dr. Hudson — 


“Jesus of Nazareth was the first to define 
the condition necessary to successful mental 
healing. His whole career was demonstrative 
of the truth of His declaration. All the ex- 
perimental researches of nineteen supervenient 


12 


SUGGESTION 


centuries have served to confirm and illustrate 
its truth. In that declaration He summed up 
the. whole law of mental healing in that one 
word ‘Faith. That was the one mental con- 
dition on the part of the patient which He 
constantly insisted upon as essential to the 
exercise of His power. That it was essential 
was clearly evidenced by the fact that He 
could not succeed in healing the sick in His 
native city ‘because of their unbelief.’ 

“Mental healing is not due to some agency 
extraneous to the patient himself. The words 
of Jesus emphatically negative the belief in 
any extraneous agency whatever. The word 
‘faith, as before remarked, indicated the 
mental condition essential to success in healing. 
It is the energizing principle of the human 
soul, and without which it is powerless to heal 
the body. And when Jesus declared to his 
patients as He did with insistent iteration “Thy 
faith has made thee whole,’ it was a clear, 
positive, and emphatic statement of the one 
basic principle of suggestive therapeutics. It 
was equivalent to saying, nineteen hundred 
years in advance, just what modern experi- 
mental science has demonstrated to be true, 
namely, that the mental energy that heals the 
sick resides within the patient himself. All 
that the healer does or can do — all that Jesus 
did or pretended to do — was to induce in the 
mind of the patient the necessary mental con- 
dition to stimulate by appropriate acts and 
words the energizing principle of his soul — 
faith. No act or word of Jesus militates in 
the slightest degree against that one emphatic 
declaration. It was, in fact, a proclamation, 


13 


SUGGES Tron 


or formulation of the Supreme Law of Sug- 
gestive Therapeutics — the law under which he 
performed His wonderful works; the law that 
He taught to His disciples; the law under 
which His promise was made that those coming 
after Him should do ‘even more wonderful 
works’ than He had done; the one universal 
law under which all mental healing has been 
accomplished since the beginning of time.” 


The power of Suggestion is mani- 
fest in every instance of Christ’s heal- 
ing. I also think it is very evident 
that Christ worked in full accord 
with natural laws; in fact there is 
nothing supernatural. That which is 
called supernatural is merely super- 
usual or supernormal. The word 
supernatural is a contradiction. Ev- 
erything in the universe is, in a sense, 
natural. The so-called supernatural 
is the natural not yet understood. It 
is often but the figment of a dis- 
ordered, undisciplined, or undevel- 
oped imagination. 

The disciples worked upon the 
same basis as did Jesus. The only 
difference, evidently, between the 
Master and His disciples was in the 
larger recognition of a force (energy) 
which was possessed by both; an en- 


14 


SUGGESTION 


ergy that was active in the one, latent 
in the other. 


PSYCHOTHERAPY 


Psychotherapy — the healing art 
practised by Christ and His disciples 
— differed from that of the more 
modern movement in this regard. He 
knew no limitations, but ‘‘ He healed 
all manner of people.’’ He, knowing 
full well that a physician’s diagnosis 
is not infallible nor his judgment 
faultless, did not ask for a physi- 
cian’s certificate. All that was re- 
quired, regardless of the nature of 
the disease, was, as has been said, 
faith, implicit faith in the inherent 
power. The gist of the whole matter 
lies in the law of suggestion which 
sets in motion the dynamic force of 
thought. 

‘Because the works of Christ were 
apparently a deviation from the 
known laws of nature,’’ said Dr. 
Hudson, *‘ is no evidence whatever 
that they were beyond the pale of the 
law. Christ understood every impulse 
of the human soul. There was no 


15 


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SUGGESTION 


phase of character that He did not 


read at a glance.’’ 

In the case of the man born blind 
I do not, for a moment, believe that 
any learned theologian would contend 
there was any efficacy in the ointment 
made of the clay and the spittle, nor 
in the water of the pool of Siloam in 
which he was told to wash. These 
were powerful conductors of sugges- 
tive force and psychological power. 


There are thousands of cases on 


record from the time of Christ to the 
present day that give indisputable 


evidence that psychotherapy will ab- 


solutely cure that which medicine 
cannot even faze. ‘Take, for in- 
stance, the Biblical record of the wo- 
man who ‘‘ pressed through the throng 
and but touched the hem of His gar- 
ment and was instantly cured after 
having suffered many things of many 
physicians for twelve years, and had 
spent all she had and was nothing 
better but rather grew worse.’’ (‘This 
is the record given by Mark, but 
Luke, being a physician, gives a dif- 
ferent account and thereby avoids the 
reflection on the medical profession. ) 


16 


SUGGESTION 


Same old story repeated over and 
over again in this our day — ‘‘spent 
all she had, was nothing better but 
rather grew worse.’’ 

I believe in giving due credit to the 
medical profession for the progress 
it has made, and feel assured that the 
day is not far distant when it will 
progress to such an extent that drug 
medication will be a thing of the past 
and that its place will be filled, large- 
ly, by psychotherapy, for it must be 
admitted that no doctor knows with 
any degree of certainty the action of 
the drug or poison he administers. He 
simply prescribes as he was taught or 
as subsequent observation and expe- 
rience dictate, and then awaits the 
effect. In the meantime the patient 
can thank his strong constitution for 
having survived the treatment. 

Leading men in the medical profes- 
sion are rapidly coming to the front 
and acknowledging the power of sug- 
gestion in psychotherapy. Dr. Fred- 
erick Van Eeden of Holland, the 
Dutch author, poet, and physician, 
widely known in this country, de- 
clares that he has given up the prac- 


17 


SUGGESTIO Nee 


tice of medicine because the so-called 
science is rapidly becoming obsolete. 
To a large audience in New York City 
he said: ‘‘I gave up the practice of 
medicine years ago for the more effec- 
tive treatment of suggestion. Many 
doctors who are practising medicine 
to-day rely more on suggestion than 
they do on drugs, but they do not like 
to admit it. When doctors of medicine 
cannot diagnose a case or do not know 
what to do for a patient they give him — 
a placebo with careful instructions as _ 
to the manner of taking. Usually — 
they tell him it is a most powerful 
drug. This is an admission that even 
in extreme cases physicians advocate 
suggestive therapeutics. A famous 
London physician told me that when 
he felt ill he used to take two rhubarb 
puls and put them on the table by 
the side of the bed when he retired. 
He declared that the effect was just 
the same as if he had taken them. 
This is but an example of what sug- 
gestion will do for the body.’’ 

It is usually claimed by orthodox 
medical men that psychotherapy does 
not avail in other than functional dis- 


18 


SUGGESTION 


orders; therefore is not to be com- 
mended in organic diseases. This is 
where the Emmanuel Church work- 
ers were and are handicapped. On 
this subject I quote Dr. Sheldon 
Leavitt of Chicago. 

‘* After a medical and surgical prac- 
tice of more than twenty-five years, I 
affirm that ordinary methods cannot 
cure as many cases of organic disease 
as can psychotherapy, and that they 
are wholly unable to cope with 
nervous disorders by the strict use 
of customary remedies. Approved 
psychotherapy makes as free and in- 
telligent use of ordinary hygienic 
measures as does medicine; they are 
common property.”’ 

Even Dr. Hugo Munsterberg, the 
Harvard psychologist and neuropa- 
thist, says: ‘‘ We recognize that every 
so-called functional disease has its or- 
ganic basis, also.’’ 

The doctor’s knowledge of the hu- 
man system is not to be underrated; 
it is, in fact, of inestimable value; but 
psychotherapy, the healing ministry 
of Christ, can be restored without in- 
jury to either the medical profession 


19 


SUGGESTION 


or intelligent Christianity, and with- 
out detachment from either the doc- 
tor or the Church. While it is true 
that we have no right to withhold the 
curative medicine that poisons the 
protoplasm of the offending bacillus, 
antagonizes pathological conditions, 
arrests exaggerated tissue waste, or 
upbuilds impoverished cells; yet, that 
curative agency is not necessarily 
drugs. 

I would not be understood as hav- 
ing any antipathy toward doctors; 
many of them are among my most 
intimate and valued friends. I think, 
as professional men, they are the 
most self-sacrificing on the face of the 
earth. Patient? Yes. ‘°* Patience on 
a monument,’’ notwithstanding the 
fact that many of their patients are © 
put wider a monument. Cheerful? — 
Yes, as they should be under the most 
trying circumstances; for instance, 
a lady patient said to her family doc- 
tor, ‘* Oh, doctor, I shall never get 
relief until I am in my grave.’’ Said. 
the cheerful doctor: ** All right, don’t 
worry, I’m doing what I can for 
you.’ 


20 


SUGGESTION 


THE CHRIST HEALING 


Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward 
said: 


“Christ was an ‘irregular.’ He defied all the 
prejudices and tyrannies of the old, established 
schools. He treated one who was ill not in the 
way that was agreeable or pleasing to the medi- 
eal profession but in the way that was best for 
the patient. He realized that they suffered 
more from the abuses of the profession than 
from the effects of the disease. He discarded 
all drugs and nostrums, all the nauseating su- 
perstitions of His age, and lifted His patients 
{0 a plane of pure living and high thinking. 
He paid no attention to popular opinion if He 
believed that opinion to be wrong. 

“The healing gift of the Nazarene was a 
force which the world had never met before. 
Its simplicity, its good sense, its astounding 
results overthrew the therapeutics of His time. 
The sick public went over en masse to the sin- 
gular healer whose prescriptions demanded of 
His patients only two things — respect for 
themselves and faith in Him. 

“The personal vitality of Jesus proved itself 
equal to every claim that He made so long as 
He lived and healed. No soul has ever visited 
this earth who so understood the piteous fate 
of physical misery which curses it. To this 
one kind of suffering He was superlatively re- 
sponsive. He never forgot, never neglected, 
never failed. He never overlooked, never 
slighted, never showed a weak hour nor a cold 

21 


SUGGESTION 


imagination. He was always sorry, always ten- 
der, always strong. 

“Jesus, the healer, had no specialty. He 
took all kinds of cases. It is not known that he 
ever failed. His practice appears to have ex- 
tended over every variety of disease known to 
His disordered land. Out of the thirty-six so- | 
called miracles, twenty-four of them were those | 
of healing.” | 


It may truly be said of Jesus of | 
Nazareth that He was too human to 
be all divine; too divine to be all hu- 
man. We may call Him man, or eall 
Him God, or call Him God-in-Man, 
or man-from-God, the title is less im- 
portant than the fact. 


THOUGHT; AN ORIGIN OF DISEASE 


Dr. Chas. Gilbert Davis, of Chi- 
cago, in his ‘‘Philosophy of Life,’’ 
speaks in no uncertain tones on this 
subject: 

“Tf a thought can in an instant of time dilate 
or contract the blood vessels, causing a rush of 
blood to or from any part; if it can increase or 
diminish the secretion of a gland; if it can 
hasten or retard the action of the heart; if it 
can turn the hair gray in a single night; if it 
can force tears from the eyes; if it can in an in- 
stant produce great bodily weakness ; if it can 
produce insomnia; if, as has often occurred, it 

can bring instantaneous death — then is it not 
22 


SUGGESTION 


natural for us to conclude, without further 
argument, that it may bring about a more or 
less continuous derangement of the physical 
organism, which we call disease ? 

“On every hand we note instances where the 
action of the mind both produces and perpetu- 
ates disease. Indeed, I can truthfully say, after 
an observation of many years in the practice of 
medicine, that a majority of the cases of illness 
which come under the daily observation of the 
physician are largely due to the condition of 
the mind. 

“Tt is not unusual for some one returning 
from the funeral of a loved one to be taken ill 
and in a few days follow that one to the grave. 
What causes this death? Depressing thought. 
A mother hears of some calamity having be- 
fallen her child. She goes into a collapse, fever 
follows, and she is near the gates of death. 
Was it not a thought that produced this illness ? 
A man is seated at a banquet table, full of 
health and happiness and blessed with a good 
appetite. A message is brought to him that 
his family has been drowned in a flood. He 
turns pale, his appetite deserts him, and his 
strength is gone, Soon he is in a delirium and 
ill. All the functions of the body are deranged ; 
a doctor is called and names his disease. But 
is it not true that this man’s disease has been 
produced by what he thought ? 

“T have seen the most wonderful effects fol- 
low a fit of anger. After an outburst of passion 
the function of every gland in the body is im- 
paired. Time and again I have observed acute 
illness in an infant where it was permitted to 
nurse immediately after the mother had been 

23 


SUGGESTION 


engaged in a quarrel, and on more than one 
such occasion I have seen death follow in a 
few hours. 

“Such instances might be multiplied indefi- 
nitely, and every observant physician has a 
mental store of such cases. 

“The standing army of the human body is 
the corpuscles of the blood—the red and the 
white. Upon these we depend to heal the 
wounds, build up new tissue, and attack 
the poisonous bacilli that may attempt to enter 
the system. Upon the healthful condition and 
number of these little soldiers depend our lives. 
Let their vitality or number be reduced and the 
invading bacilli scale the ramparts, swarm over 
the body, and, taking possession, destroy it. 

“Thought produces disease or health because — 
of its action on the corpuscles of the blood. 
These corpuscles are wonderfully influenced by 
the mind. An outraged conscience, hate, envy, 
anger, and fear crush the vitality out of them ~ 
and leave the citadel of life exposed. But faith, 
hope, happiness, and love create them and send 
them swarming through the body till every fibre 
and tissue throbs with life. This is demon- 
strated by the microscope. 

“Examine the blood of a man or woman liv- 
ing a life that constantly outrages a previously 
finely educated conscience, and you will find the 
corpuscular element far below par. Examine 
the blood of the fallen woman who has been 
reared and educated in the strict tenets of the 
Church, but who has drifted away into the 
haunts of sin, with a conscience night and day 
goading her to the brink of despair, and I defy 
you to tell me her blood is healthy.” : 

24 


SUGGESTION 


This is not mere theory with Dr. 
Davis. A few years ago, by means of 
trained nurses and assistants, he con- 
ducted a series of scientific experi- 
ments. In this connection he sent his 
assistants into the haunts of the 
vicious and the homes of the right- 
eous. 

Thus it may be seen that disease 
may be created and maintained by 
what we think, and disease may be 
averted, notwithstanding the pres- 
ence of dangerous bacilli in the body. 
Hence the value of psychotherapy as 
a curative agency, 


ADVERSE SUGGESTIONS 


When you have been healed, 
whether by yourself or by another 
(I should say, through the aid of an- 
other), you should heed the injunction 
so wisely given — ‘‘See thou tell no 
man.’’ No recorded words that the 
Master ever uttered display a more 
profound knowledge of the underly- 
ing principles of mental healing than 
do these. One should always be on 
his guard to fortify himself against 
the adverse suggestions that come 

25 


SUGGESTIONS 


from the ever-present sceptic. The 
world is full of doubting Thomases. 
It is well to keep your own counsel in 
the presence of such men. 

In all self-help, in healing or in 
business, concentrate your mind with 
implicit faith on that which you de- 
sire rather than upon the condition 
that exists, if the condition that exists 
is not desirable. Mind being indivis- 
ible, you cannot hold it upon a dis- 
eased condition of the body and at 
the same time expect health. You 


cannot dwell upon failure in business” 
and at the same time expect success. 


Remember they can who think they 
can. 


Also bear in mind that the words — 


hope aud expect are not in reality syn- 


onymous. There are many who hope — 


to receive, desire to receive, yet do not 
really expect to receive. ‘True expec- 
tancy always implies faith; but not 
the faith that the woman used on the 
ash heap. As she was locking the rear 
door of her house she saw the mound 
of ashes in the back yard. She said, 


‘‘T am told that if youshave tain. 


even as a grain of mustard seed, you 


can remove a mountain. Well, I don’t | 


26 


SUGGESTION 


believe it, but I’m willing to try it on 
the ash heap.’’ In the morning when 
she opened the rear door, seeing the 
ash heap still there, she exclaimed, 
‘¢ Just as I expected.”’ 

The world to-day is full of illustra- 
tions of the efficacy of suggestion 
through faith. The physician who can 
arouse it and carry it along the lines 
of known scientific truth is capable of 
reaching the highest pinnacle of pro- 
fessional usefulness in the age in 
which he lives. 


CAST OUT FEAR 


The element of faith dispels every 
particle of fear. No disease can be 
cured by any means whatsoever until 
all fear is eliminated. Fear is nega- 
tive. Fear invites, albeit in a negative 
manner. You may remember the fate 
of poor old Job — *‘ The thing which I 
greatly feared is come upon me.”’ Fear 
lessens the vital action, obstructs the 
functions of the glands, retards the 
secretion of the gastric juice, dimin- 
ishes the vitality of the red and white 
corpuscles — the standing army of the 
body,—and so the invading host en- 

27 


SUGGESTION 


ters and takes possession and destroys 
the life. This is well expressed by R. 
R. Bowker, in the little poem— 


FEAR AND DEATH 


“The Spirit of the Plague entered the gate. 

One watching asked, ‘How many wilt thou 
slay?’ 

‘One thousand,’ spake the Spirit, ‘is my quest.’ 


“The Plague made end. The Spirit left the 
gate. : 
The watcher cried, ‘Ten thousand didst thou 
slay!’ | 
‘Nay, one,’ the Spirit said; ‘Fear killed the 
rest.’ ” 


I would encourage you to treat fear 
as an enemy, that is, face it. Many 
years ago (1876) Kit Carson, Jr., im- 
pressed me very strongly with the 
physical element of courage, and in an 
interview with him [I asked him to 
favor me with a written sentiment in 
addition to his autograph. On the 
back of a card he wrote, ‘‘T'rue to 
friends and square with enemies.”’ 
To this he signed hisname. That sen- 
timent was to me a very strong sug- 
gestion to be applied mentally and 
morally as well as physically. You 

28 


SUGGESTION 


cannot be square with any enemy un- 
less you have courage, and courage 
never turns her back. 


‘‘Hlee from fear, and still the faster 
Fear comes on. 

Turn, assert yourself the master ; 
Fear is gone.”’ 


SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 


The mind is always controllable by 
suggestion. A suggestion, however, is 
not necessarily verbal, but is some- 
thing you can see, smell, hear, touch, 
or taste. The mind can be stuffed, 
starved, or poisoned as truly as the 
body. J have every reason to believe 
that there is not a disease known to 
man which cannot be remedied if the 
mind of the patient be prevented 
from retarding the recovery of health. 
Friends and sympathetic relatives 
also have, unintentionally of course, 
killed many persons by misdirected 
kindness and overanxiety. 

Suggestive therapeutics is an estab- 
lished fact. It is rapidly taking its 
place as a remedial agent. Wherever 
we go, and in every case of sickness, 

, 29 


SUGGLSTi Cx 


we witness the power of suggestion. 
Suggestive therapeutics, however, is 
not infallible, says Bernheim, al- 
though it gives good results in a very 
large number of cases. It may fail 
even when it is intelligently and per- 
sistently managed. The cause of the 
failure is inherent; sometimes in the 
disease, sometimes in the subject. One 
who uses suggestion never has need to 
deny the existence of disease, but he 
should assert positively and truth- 
fully that the disease is amenable to 
cure, and that recovery will follow as 
the result of the treatment. 

That there is inherent in all man- 
kind a psychic power presiding over 
the functions, conditions, and sensa- 
tions of the body, and that the power 
can be evoked and controlled at will 
under proper conditions, is no longer 
a matter of doubt to reasonable inves- 
tigators. This inherent power, known — 
as the subjective mind, runs the entire 
human machinery when the objective © 
mind is either asleep or in abeyance; 
in fact, it runs the machinery of life 
all the time, but it runs better when 
not interfered with by adverse sugges- 
tions from the objective mind. It has 

30 


SUGGESTION 


absolute control over all the functions 
—nutrition, waste, all secretions and 
excretions, the action of the heart in 
the circulation of the blood, the lungs 
in respiration, and over all cell life, 
cell changes, and development. 

‘“T do not pretend,’’ says Bern- 
heim, ‘‘that suggestion acts directly 
upon the diseased organ. Diseases 
are cured, when they can be cured, by 
their natural biological evolution. 
Ordinary therapeutic methods consist 
in putting the organism in a condition 
such that the restitutio in integrum 
may take place. We suppress the 
pain, we modify functions, we let the 
organ rest, we calm the fever, we 
retard the pulse, we induce sleep, we 
encourage secretion and excretion; 
and, acting thus, we permit nature 
(the healer), or, to speak in modern 
language, we permit the activity of 
the forces and the properties inherent 
in the biological elements, to accom- 
plish their work.’’ 

Every element of the organism has, 
so to speak, its centre of action bor- 
dering upon the brain. Sensibility, 
movement, nutrition, secretion, excre- 
tion, and calorification are governed, 

31 


SUGGESTION 


or at least influenced, by this cen- 
tral organism which presides over 
the complex mechanism of animal 
physiology. 

— Suggestion is of special value to 
physicians. I think Dr. Parkyn is 
quite right in declaring that ‘‘ physi- 
clans study the anatomy and physiol- 
ogy of the brain, but they sadly neg- 
lect the study of its functions.’’ The 
chief and greatest function of the 
brain 1s to receive, associate, and store 
away all impressions received through 
the senses, and to reproduce these im- 
pressions when necessary. Through 
the mind every organ of the body may 
be assisted, and it is through uncon- 
scious action of the mind upon the 
body that so many diseases are pro- 
duced and so many cured. 

A study of psychology and sugges- 
tion will enable a physician, when a 
patient first consults him, to ascertain 
the part imagination plays in the com- 
plaint. Imaginary or not, it is real to 
the patient. Every careful observer 
knows that the functions of the human 
body may be greatly disturbed, as 
noted by Dr. Davis, through mental 
influences, and that such disturbances, 

32 


SUGGESTION 


if prolonged, result in fixed functional 
or nervous diseases, and that these 
functional derangements often ter- 
minate in organic disease and some- 
times in death. 7 

That mental activities are capable 
of producing chemical and anatomical 
changes in our bodies is a demonstra- 
ble fact. It is also true that, while 
properly directed thoughts are always 
conducive to conditions of health, per- 
verted mental conditions as _ cer- 
tainly produce functional and organic 
disease. 

Alcoholism is now justly regarded 
as a perverted mental condition, of 
which the uncontrollable drink habit 
is the outward manifestation. The 
fact that alcoholism yields so readily 
to suggestive therapeutics is proof 
positive of its mental origin, and on 
this account its rational treatment can 
be accomplished only along the line of 
psychic methods. 

‘‘The Law of Suggestion,’’ says Dr. 
Hudson, ‘‘correlates all systems of 
mental healing; and all healing by 
mental processes is dependent upon 
the law of suggestion, consciously or 
unconsciously applied.’’ 

3d 


x 


Di Suto ans 


Sie Nasa Alia sg — 


EDS 


SUGGESTION 


A placebo is a therapeutic sugges- 
tion which the medical profession has 
thoroughly understood and success- 
fully practised for centuries. 

An amulet is a therapeutic sugges- 
tion which the superstitious have ef- 
fectively employed for ages. 

Saintly relics are therapeutic sug- 
gestions which ‘‘the Church ”’ has em- 
ployed with wonderful success since 
the days of Constantine. 

The insensate jargon of the ** Chris- 
tian Scientist’? constitutes a thera- 
peutic suggestion which has proved 
effective in thousands of cases. It is 
especially efficacious with those who 
are governed by their emotions and 
are untrained to habits of correct 
fone 

It will thus be seen, first, that an ef- 

/ fective suggestion is not necessarily 
an oral suggestion; second, that it is 
not necessarily a statement of fact; 
third, that the power that effects the 

_ healing is resident within the patient 

' himself, and is not dependent upon 
any extraneous force whatsoever. | 

Thus it will be seen that a therapeu- 

, tic suggestion may be absolutely false, 
/ _ considered as a statement of fact, and 
. 34 


Bey 


SUGGESTION 


yet be therapeutically effective. Were 
it not true, a placebo could never have | 


been effective. Were it not true, / 
Christian Science would never have 
had an existence. 


POWER OF THOUGHT IN AUTO- 
SUGGESTION 


Autosuggestion (self-suggestion ) 1s 
as potent in its influence as sugges- 
tion by another. Even when reason is 
dethroned, the thought held by the 
subjective mind (the mind of the 
soul) having become the dominant 
idea, holds the power over the bodily 
functions. The following convincing 
ulustration is vouched for by the 
Lancet, London, England: 


“An English lady, disappointed in love in | 
her younger years, became insane and lost all | 
account of time. Believing she was still young | 
and living in the same hour in which she was | 
parted from her lover, taking no note of | 
years, she stood daily before the window | 


watching for his coming. In this mental con- 
dition she remained young. 

“Some American travellers who saw her 
were asked to guess her age. They, unac- 
quainted with her history, placed her age 
under twenty. She was at the time seventy- 
four, but she had not a wrinkle or gray hair; i/ 


35 


more pram vernon 


SUGGESTION 


/ ‘youth sat gently on cheek and brow. She was 
held by the thought of youth and love, and it 
( retarded the marks of age.’ 


/ Many persons have recently been 
feured at Lourdes, France; thousands 
| have left their crutches at the shrine 
| of saints and gone away rejoicing; 
| multitudes have touched what they 
_ supposed to be a piece of the true 
| cross, and were healed. The healing 
| power was not in the inanimate ob- 
| Jects, nor was there anything miracu- 
_ lous in the cures; in each case it was 
| simply the result of autosuggestion, 
| the belief in the curative powers of the 


‘ things seen or touched. 


IMAGINATION AND SUGGESTION 


The imagination may be wrought 
upon by reading, as instanced by pat- 
ent medicine advertisements, or by 
hearsay, or may be wholly creative. 
In each ease it is the outgrowth of a 
mental condition; and the result is 
that the unreal becomes real, the ulti- 
mate result frequently proving fatal. 

The fatal power of imagination was 
illustrated recently in the case of a 
Russian railway employee who was 

36 


BUGGHES TION 


by accident shut up in a refrigerator 
ear. 

He wrote on the wall, ‘‘ 1 am becom- 
ing colder.’’ Later, ‘I am slowly 
freezing.’’ Still later, and the last, ‘‘ I 
am half asleep; these may be my last 
words.”’ 

When they took him out he was 
dead; but it was found that the tem- 
perature of the car was 56 degrees. 
The apparatus was out of order. His 
autosuggestion, working on his ima- 
gination, killed him. 

It does not always prove fatal but 
sometimes amusing, as in the ease of 
the elderly couple spending their first 
night in a Pullman sleeper. Shortly 
after retiring, the following conversa- 
tion took place: 

Wife: ‘‘ You must raise the win- 
dow or I[’ll smother; it’s very close 
and stuffy in here.’’ 

Husband: ‘‘If I raise the window 
T’ll catch my death of cold.’’ 

Wife: ‘‘ Well, I’ll smother, I know 
I will, I can searcely get my breath. ”’ 

Husband: ‘‘ All right, I’ll raise it 
for your sake, no matter what may be 
the consequences to me.”’ 

As soon as the window was raised 

37 


SUGGESTION 


the husband began sneezing, while the 
wife, taking a deep breath, exclaimed, 
‘‘My! how refreshing.’’ 

Imagine their surprise when in the 
morning they discovered that it was a 
double window and only the inner one 
had been raised. The husband caught 
cold and the wife was refreshed by 
the same current of air — which 
existed only in their imagination. 


IMAGINATION EXTRAORDINARY 


The Philadelphia Press gives the 
following interesting and highly sug- 
gestive incident of the power of sug- 
gestion through imagination: 


“On one occasion when Li Hung Chang, as 
premier, was having a bitter fight with some 
of the more conservative members of the Tsung 
Li Yamen, he received as a present a magni- 
ficent cake which he had reason to suspect con- 
tained poison. He put the cake aside and set 
to work to find out who was at the bottom of 
the plot. The crime was traced to three men, 
one of whom, at least, was absolutely guilty. 
Li had the trio brought to the yamen. When 
they arrived they were ushered into his pres- 
ence and were received in his courtliest manner. 
The cake was produced with the remark that 
‘politeness forbids my tasting it until the three 

38 


SG GES TION 


generous donors have had an opportunity to 
enjoy its excellence.’ 

“Li cut the cake, and one of his servitors 
handed it to the unwilling guests. Each took 
a piece and ate, or pretended to eat. One of 
them crumbled the pieces and let them fall 
upon the floor, but the two others ate calmly 
without manifesting any emotion. 

“Within ten minutes the two men began to 
show symptoms of suffering. Li smiled be- 
nignantly and said to the man who had not 
eaten: ‘Your wisdom is so great that I am 
compelled to preserve your head as a souvenir 
of transcendent genius.’ 

“The man was removed and promptly de- 
capitated. To the two others the premier 
remarked : ‘The cake you ate is not the one you 
sent, but one which I had my cook imitate. 
The poison from which you are suffering exists 
only in your imagination. I know of no better 
way to cure your present pain than by letting 
you share the same fate as your friend who has 
just left the room.’ 

“As they were led away, Li said to his reti- 
nue: ‘It is a pity that men who can eat a 
deadly corrosive poison with an unmoved coun- 
tenance should so misapply the talent where- 
with Heaven has endowed them.’ ” 


CHANGE OF CLIMATE DID IT 


Some time ago the Virginia State 
line was changed so as to include a 
patch of territory heretofore belong- 
ing to North Carolina. A section of 

39 


SUGGES TON 


the 1and thus transferred included a 
tumble-down cabin, where dwelt an 
aged negro woman. An inquisitive 
neighbor, calling to see how the ne- 
gress enjoyed the idea of becoming a 
Virginian in her old age, began by 
asking: 

‘* How ’s the rheumatism, auntie ?’’ 

‘* Bettah, praise de Lawd.”’ 

‘¢ And the neuralgia ?”’ 

‘‘Done gone. Clean depahted.”’ — 

‘¢ And the stiff knee ?’’ 

‘¢ Frisky as a li’ colt.”’ 

‘* Why, auntie, how on earth do you 
happen to be so much better all of a 
sudden ?”’ 

‘‘'Well, miss,’’ replied the auntie, 
proudly, ‘‘ Ah always done heah dat 
Virginny climate’s a heap healthiah 
’n de climate of No’th Ca’liny. Ah 
reckon dat sho’ counts fo’ ma change 
fo’ de bettah.”’ 


SUGGESTION TO AND FOR MOTHERS 


Children are wonderfully amenable 
to suggestion, good or bad. I have 
long contended and often proved that 
suggestion used intelligently by the 
mother is a most potent factor for 

40 


SUGGESTION 


good, as thereby the most willful child 
may be made submissive, not by hav- 
ing the will destroyed, but by having 
it directed into proper channels. 
Through the same agency children 
may be cured of bad habits, undesir- 
able traits, inattention to studies, ete. 

The time to shape a character, the 
time when it is most susceptible to ma- 
ternal influences, is during the nat- 
ural—not hypnotic— sleep of the 
child. 


day time of the soul.’’ The sleepy-time 
of the child is the impressible time. 


Any mother who has the highest inter- 


est of her child at heart will make 
almost any sacrifice to use that mater- 
nal, soulful influence at that most 
opportune time by herself putting her 
children to bed instead of committing 
them to the care of another, especially 
that of a servant. 

‘¢The soul of a child and, in lesser 
degree, of the grown-up man,”’ says 
Dr. Frederick Van Eeden, ‘‘ can be 
shaped by suggestive influence in any 
form ; it can be bent, crooked, twisted, 
adulterated — morally and mentally 
— to an extent dependent on its degree 

41 


‘“The night time of the body is the 


ie 


N 


SUGGES Tio 


of plasticity, its inborn original force 
of resistance, and the power of sugges- 
tive forces at work.’’ 

The definition of suggestibility as 
given by Bernheim is ‘‘ the aptitude 
of the mind to receive an idea, and the 
tendency to transform it into action. ”’ 

The general opinion is that a person 
asleep is, for the time being, dead to 
the world; but a knowledge of the fact 
that the subjective mind never sleeps 
should make one careful of what he 
says in the presence of asleeper. Nat- 
ural sleep is not a condition of insen- 
sibility to external impressions, but 
rather a condition of inattention. The 
sleeper hears, but he does not heed at 
the time the suggestion is made. It 
is not difficult to introduce ideas to 
one’s consciousness which shall make 
a permanent and deep impression 
through the subjective mind upon the 
objective, or waking, mind. Much de- 
pends upon the age and the disposition 
of the child. No one understands this 
better than the mother. 

As a rule, the best way to approach 
the child is to say (as it is about to 
retire) : ‘‘ Mamma is going to talk to 
you to-night while you are asleep, and 

42 


SUGGESTION 


you will hear and understand it all, 
but you will not awake.’’ Some chil- 
dren will, of course, be quite curious 
to know why you are going to talk to ; 
them, what you are going to talk 
about, and why you don’t talk to them 
when they are awake. 

In some instances the mother may 
sit by the side of the bed and talk in a 
general way to the child ere it sleeps. 
While she talks in a quiet manner, the 
child, as a rule, soon becomes drowsy, 
and as it drops asleep the mother says: 
‘‘his is mother talking to you. You 
will not awake. You will sleep 
quietly. You are now very quiet 
and restful. You can speak to me 
without awaking. Do you hear me 
talking to younow? Say,‘ Yes.’ You 
will notawake. Now [touch your lips 
with my fingers and you can speak. 
Say ‘ Yes, mamma, I hear you.’ ”’ 

You should not expect the child to 
awake, but should it stir uneasily and 
open its eyes, the mother should not 
relinquish her attempt, but gently 
close the eyelids, at the same time sug- 
gesting again: ‘* Nothing will disturb 
you; you will sleep quietly now, and 
hear what mamma says, because it is 

43 


os 


Sw 


SUGGESTION 


all for your good, and you will be so 
pleased to do what mamma suggests.”’ 

It is well if you stroke the child’s 
forehead gently, as this will have a 
quieting effect and accustom the sleep- 
er to your presence. You should then 
proceed with your suggestions of those 
things that you desire to eliminate 
—disobedience, untidiness, idleness, 
untruthfulness, nail-biting, lack of — 
application to studies or music, ete., 
whatever you feel the child most 
needs. Speak plainly but quietly, yet 
with sufficient positiveness to be im- 
pressive. 

If you wish to exact a promise from 
the child you should say: ‘* I want you 
to promise me that you will never 
o rebeeoas again. Say, ‘I promise 
you, mamma, that I never will.’ ’’ You 
should repeat this several times. I 
have always found it most effective 
to use the first person, singular, thus 
having the affirmation made by the 
child, instead of having the mother 
say, you will do this, or you will do 
that. To illustrate: ‘*I’ll do as mam- 
ma wants me to; I’ll not do anything 
to hurt mamma; I’l] make everybody 
happy by being good to everybody.”’ 

44 


SUGGESTION 


These suggestions need not be con- 
fined entirely to bad habits, but to 
physical ailments and various bodily 
conditions. One of my pupils cured 
her little girl (a very small child) of 
enuresis. This was easily accom- 
plished, even after guaranteed reme- 
dies and the family physician had 
utterly failed. Another mother cured 
her fourteen-year-old boy of a very 
bad case of stammering, cured him 
while he slept; and the boy does not 
know to this day how the cure was 
effected. 

There are cases covering almost 
every phase of mental and physical 
conditions. I shall give one more and 
the means employed. 


FOR CHILDREN BACKWARD IN 
STUDIES 


My niece, thirteen years of age, 
brought me her card at the close of the 
school year, and I noticed that her 
marking was very low on one particu- 
lar study. She informed me that she 
took no interest in the subject. Hence 
she made no effort in its preparation. 

During the summer I would have 

45 


K 


SUGGESTION 


her take a nap in the afternoon, lying 
on the floor, as I read my paper. I 
told her I would talk to her while she 
slept. Shesaid:‘‘ What are you going 
to talk to me about, uncle?’’ ‘‘Qh, 
something for your good.”’ ‘** But I 
won’t hear you if I am asleep.’’ ‘* Yes, 
you will, and you will answer me, too, 
without awaking.”’ 

I began by saying, ‘* You will sleep 
well and my talking will not disturb 
you. Do you hear me?”’ °° Yes, sir,’’ 
came faintly. ‘‘ I noticed on your card 
that in one of your studies you had a 
very low marking. That will not oc- 
eur again. You will take a great in- 
terest in that study; you will succeed 
in it; you will get a high percentage. ’’ 
‘¢Yes, I hear you say [turning this 
now to first person, singular], ‘I am 
going to study it, am going to like 
it, am going to succeed in it, and I ’m 
going to surprise and please my 
teacher.’ ’’. 

I repeated these suggestions over 
and over again, each time that the 
treatment was given, and for many 
days in succession. She slept well. 
When she awakened she had no recol- 
lection of what had been said. The 

46 


SUGGESTION 


impressions had been made and the 
subjective mind received them with- 
out any conscious effort of the objec- 
tive mind; hence no objective recol- 
lection. Then you may ask, ‘‘ What 
becomes of the suggestions made to 
the subjective mind ?”’ 

During the waking hours they rise 
above the threshold of consciousness, 
not as thoughts suggested by another, 
but as an inspiration, a desire, a de- 
termination, as emanating wholly 
from the subject. 

In the case of my niece the thought 
found lodgment in very congenial soil 
and brought forth good results. At 
the close of the next school year she 
came home in great glee, saying, as 
she handed me the card: ‘‘ See here, 
uncle! Here is my marking on that 
study I did not like, but I like it now. 
See, I have a very high per cent on it. 
Is n’tit queer?’’ Of course, I thought 
it was. 


SUGGESTION AS AN EDUCATOR 


The value of suggestion in educa- 
tional work is almost beyond belief. 
This applies not only to the child that 

47 


SUGGESTION 


is deficient in some particular study, 
as has been shown previously, or diffi- 
dent to study in general, but also to 
adults fitting themselves for their life 
work. This is especially true of those 
entering or having entered profes- 
sional life—the minister, doctor, law- 
yer, actor, musician, artist, ete. The 
natural talent may be greatly devel- 
oped by proper treatment at the 
hands of an efficient suggestionist. In 
short, there is no occupation nor pro- 
fession for which one has an aspira- 
tion that the necessary inspiration 
cannot be evoked, and the inherent 
power set in motion by the true sug- 
gestionist. Inspiration comes from 
the inner self. ; 


WHY REPEAT SUGGESTIONS 


The question has been asked time 
and again, ‘‘ If the subjective mind is 
intuitive, and if it is ever ready and 
willing to assist, and if it has such 
power over the human machinery, 
why do you have to tell it what you 
want when it already knows? And 
after you tell it once, why do you re- 
peat and repeat and repeat, when the 

48 


SUGGESTION 


memory of the subjective mind is per- 
fect? 

Of all those who believe in the 
power of prayer I would, in answer, 
ask this question: If God is, as all be- 
lievers will admit, omniscient (all 
knowing), and if, as we are told, He is 
even more ready than are our parents 
to give good gifts unto His children, 
why does He, who knows our desires 
without our uttering them, why does 
He not grant them without our telling 
Him what we want? And having told 
Him once, why is it necessary to re- 
peat and repeat and repeat? 

The fault is wholly with us — just 
simply lack of faith. The repetition 
acts aS an autosuggestion to us. All 
the doubts and fears and discourage- 
ments lic in the objective mind. If 
you can get rid of them by one petition 
you will never need asecond. You did 
not get them all at once; you loaded up 
with them by degrees. Even when the 
things that have been are no more, you 
still will have need to keep in touch— 
the finite with the infinite—to pre- 
vent recurrences. 

_ Therefore, every time the sugges- 
tion is made, it is for the purpose of 
49 


SUGGESTION 


strengthening your objective mind 
that it may not interfere with the sub- 
jective, or soul mind, in carrying out 
your desire. 

In the same manner, when you pray 
audibly (by yourself, not to be heard 
by others), your faith is increased be- 
cause of the spoken words acting as 
an autosuggestion. When in great dis- 
tress, you ‘‘ery aloud’’ (not loudly), 
because the spoken heartfelt petition 
relieves the over-burdened soul and 
strengthens you. 

Remember, God is ever ready to 
help, but He helps only those who help 
themselves; the subjective mind (the 
mind of the soul) is ever ready, but it 
depends upon the attitude of the ob- 
jective. 


CAUTION TO MOTHERS 


Do not speak disparagingly either 
to or of a child, especially in the pres- 
ence of another. To speak of a child’s 
faults upon such an occasion is to im- 
press them the more deeply upon the 
child. To tell him he is stupid is to 
make him the more so; to tell him he 
is a coward is to exaggerate the con- 

50 


SUGGES TION 


dition of fear within him; to tell him 
he is idle and good-for-nothing is to 
make him so; but to pick out the good 
points and to speak of them is to en- 
courage him and make him forget the 
less desirable ones. The law of sug- 
gestion is absolute. 

You may remember the story of the 
mother who, upon leaving home, and 
allowing her children to care for 
themselves during her absence, said to 
them, **‘ Now, don’t play with the fire, 
nor put beans in your noses, nor turn 
on the hose.’’ When she returned she 
found that they had all played with 
the fire, had turned on the hose, and 
each of the children had a bean up its 
nose. 

This was the result of suggestion 
thrown out by the mother; the con- 
trariness of human nature asserting 
itself. 


QUICK RESULTS 


A good old Scotch lady in Cleveland 
said to me: ‘‘I have a son, a young 
man, who is at present home from col- 
lege. He is unlike any other of my 
children.. He has never made a confi- 
dante of me. I cannot go to his room 

51 


SUGGESTION 


to talk to him when he is asleep. I 
cannot even approach him on the sub- 
ject when he is awake. What can I do 
to bring about the desired results ?’’ 

I advised her to hold the thought 
(her desire) on him, for him, while the 
family were together in the evening, 
each employed as taste might dictate. 
She should be apparently occupied— 
reading, for instance—but, in fact, 
really occupied in holding the thought, 
with faith believing in its ultimate suc- 
cess. 

She did as suggested. This was the 
thought she held: ‘* I have never con- 
fided in mother [the thought held in 
the first person, singular]. I know I 
should. I will have a talk with her. 
Yes, I will.’’ 

This thought, held by the mother for 
her son, became a prayer, an earnest 
desire of the heart. She dwelt upon it 
when in his presence. The thought — 
found lodgment in his subjective 
mind. It presented itself to his objec- 
tive mind as an earnest desire on his 
part. He obeyed the promptings. Her 
prayer was answered. ‘T'he mother | 
love prevailed in the silence when it 
would have been ineffectual through 

52 


SUGGESTION 


the spoken word. She reached the ob- 
jective through the subjective. This 
was her first attempt at suggestion 
through thought transference. She 
was successful the first night. Think 
of it! Her first trial! Why? Because 
of the power of quiescent concentra- 
tion that results from calm, unfalter- 
ing faith. 


SUGGESTIONS TO THE DYING 


Not only is this admissible but 
properly given under proper condi- 
tions may prove a blessing. The so- 
called sleep of the dying is analogous 
to that of the deepest hypnosis and is, 
therefore, susceptible to any sugges- 
tion, pro or con, inasmuch as the sub- 
jective mind is wholly withdrawn 
from the material side of life. The 
shghtest whisper may act with great 
force for good or otherwise, for even 
a thought may be cognized by the one 
just on the borderland. 

A physician should be on his guard 
as to his remarks in the presence of the 
dying. A few weeks ago I called to 
see an elderly lady—seventy-five 
years of age—of whom the doctor 

53 


SUGGES Phos 


had said: ‘‘ It is only a question 
of time, as the death-rattle has al- 
ready begun and she will probably 
choke to death.’’ This was not a pleas- 
ant thought for either the mother or 
daughter of the dying woman to en- 
tertain ; therefore, with the daughter’s 
permission I addressed myself to the 
subjective mind of the dying mother 
with a countersuggestion to that made 
by the physician. Almost instantly 
the rattling ceased, the respiration be- 
came easier, and the end came quietly 
and peacefully, but not for more than 
twenty-four hours after the time ex- 
pected, the prolongation being due to 
the fact that there was less expendi- 
ture of vital and nervous foree as the 
result of the suggestion. 


METHOD FOR ABSENT TREATMENT 


It is not necessary that suggestion 
should be confined to small children 
nor to the sleep condition. 

If you desire to aid one — mentally, 
morally, or physically — at home or at 
a distance, you may readily do so after 
you retire, or during any time that 
you can enter the silence. 

54 


SUGGESTION 


When the objective mind is asleep 
or is in abeyance, the subjective mind 
(which never sleeps) is the more ac- 
tive. Therefore, just before dropping 
asleep hold the thought of helpfulness 
on and for the one whom you wish to 
benefit. You frame the thought ac- 
cording to the individual, and the 
needs. 

What takes place? Your messages 
are received by the non-sleeping 
mind (the subjective) of the one to 
whom they are sent. It is not as a 
message coming direct from you, but 
indirectly. The recipient will be im- 
pressd during his waking hours to 
follow an impulse coming from he 
knows not where; an impulse that will 
be wholly the result of your desire; 
an impulse to spur himself on to 
higher aims, greater ambition, and the 
acquisition of hope and courage in 
place of fear and discouragement; an 
impulse to lay hold of every hygienic 
measure for the restoration of health; 
in other words, whatever you desire 
for him he will desire for himself. 

A word of caution. To secure the 
best results it is neither necessary nor 
wise to inform the person of your in- 

55 


SUGGESTION 


tentions, unless you are assured that 
he or she is in full sympathy with 
your undertaking; otherwise you will 
be obliged to work against possible 
prejudice and preconceived ideas. I 
must admit that much of the so-called 
absent treatment resolves itself into 
self-treatment, as in thousands of 
cases no thought whatever is pro- 
jected at the time of treatment. 

It is true many were helped by 
merely thinking they were being 
treated at a certain time and by a cer- 
tain person; so effective is the power 
of autosuggestion. Absent treatment 
is all right when properly and hon- 
estly used. It has been greatly ridi- 
culed in consequence of its misuse. 
It has brought wealth to a few persons 
who have gulled their victims by 
charging them so much ‘‘per’’ for 
treatments which have never been 
given, except in type-written formu- 
las that were previously prepared for 
all cases of a similar nature; the re- 
sults, when such there are, being due 
to the autosuggestion of the subject, 
not to any specially directed effort of 
the healer. In thousands of cases the 
‘*healer’’ knew nothing of the condi- 


56 


SUGGESTION 


tion of the patient, knew nothing of 
the patient, and did not come in touch 
with him at any time, but simply 
“touched”? him for so much a month. 

There is no doubt that a wonderful 
potency exists in projected thought- 
vibrations when emanating from a 
highly trained mind. 

Suggestions for absent treatment 
are of many varieties—as many and 
various as are the desires or needs. 
If the suggestions are properly made 
in the proper spirit and with suffi- 
cient faith, there is nothing within the 
bounds of reason that will not yield. 
This applies to any habit—liquor, 
opium, morphine, tobacco—that has 
seemingly fastened itself upon the 
victim. Through this mental process 
(suggestion) you can secure such 
harmonious conditions, such confi- 
‘dence, as cannot be secured in any 
other way. 

None should doubt the power of 
the mind in making mental impres- 
sions after the recent developments in 
New York. Four well-known scien- 
tists held their fingers on an in- 
closed photographic plate and while 
so doing concentrated the mind in- 

57 


SUGGESTION 


tently on a ball of surgeon’s gauze ly- 
ing upon the floor. When the plate 
was developed the object was plainly 
visible. 

The amount of good that may be ac- 
complished by projecting the right 
thought-waves is beyond the power of 
the human mind to comprehend. 


A REMARKABLE CASE OF 
SUGGESTION 


One of the most striking examples 
of the power and good results of sug- 
gestion has just been reported from 
Paris. A wild, vicious, criminal, hys- 
terical creature has been changed into 
a good woman. A once abandoned 
girl of the gutters is now an excellent, 
devoted nurse in a Paris hospital. The 
change is due to the patient and untir- 
ing efforts of Dr. Auguste Voisin, of 
the Salpetriere Hospital. The won- 
derful change was brought about by 
suggestion preceded by hypnosis: 
suggestion whereby good ideas were 
conveyed to her subjective mind, 
which finally conquered the evil habits 
that had been acquired from bad sur- 
roundings and early misfortunes. It 

58 


SUGGESTION 


is the more remarkable when consid- 
ering the fact that she was born of the 
lowest class of parents in the rag- 
picking quarter of Paris, where she 
saw little in her girlhood but wicked- 
ness and brutality. She was in a de- 
plorable condition—‘‘a criminal luna- 
tic, filthy, with a life history of 
erime.’’ At last, while in the hypnotic 
condition, she was taught to feel re- 
gret for her past life and to form reso- 
lutions for reform. She seemed as 
eager to do right after her transfor- 
mation as she had been to do wrong 
before her better self was evoked. 
She now displays qualities as marked 
on the moral side as she did pre- 
viously on the depraved side. This 
case should serve as a lesson to those 
who are prejudiced against hypno- 
tism or suggestion. (See Vol. IV, 
Hypnotism, ) 


A FEW EXPERIENCES IN HEALING 


During my own limited experi- 
ence in treating, I have been es- 
pecially impressed with the fact 
that results depend on mental atti- 
tude. I have taken similar cases; for 

59 


SUGGESTION 


instance, deafness. In one ease of six 
treatments there was scarcely any 
perceptible improvement; in others, 
a complete cure in fifteen minutes. 
What was the difference? In the 
former, the lady remarked at the 
close, ‘‘ Well, I really did not think 
it could be done, because the doctor 
says I am of a contrary nature; that 
which helps others never has the 
same effect on me.’’ Lack of faith. 

In the other cases, they expected re- 
sults, and had them in one sitting. 
Implicit faith. 

I have thus noticed that results 
have been speedy or tardy in propor- 
tion to the faith. While I have been 
unusually successful, I have not been 
always successful. I would not shirk 
the responsibility of the so-called 
failures, but the logical conclusion 
compels me to say that it must rest 
entirely with the one being treated, 
provided that the one giving the 
treatments understands the law—the 
supreme law of psychotherapy. 

Asa lecturer and teacher, the treat- 
ing [ have done is merely incidental, 
as I confine myself almost wholly to 
those who enter my classes; but I have 

60 


SUGGESTION 


in this way treated thousands with 
marked success. The previous les- 
sons are to the members of the class 
what the tilling of the soil is to the 
seed ; better results are realized. 

My first attempt at healing was 
very encouraging because of its com- 
plete success. It occurred long be- 
fore the label of Psychotherapy was 
in use. It was in 1886—a case of epi- 
lepsy as diagnosed by the family phy- 
sicilan—cured in fifteen minutes. The 
latent energizing principle of the soul 
was aroused, doubts and fears were 
removed, and as the clouds rolled 
away the young woman exclaimed, ‘‘ I 
do not believe I shall ever have an- 
other spell,’’—nor did she. Her faith 
did make and keep her whole. 

Incredible as it may seem, I have 
cured cases of chronic rheumatism in 
one treatment of about fifteen min- 
utes; one case in three minutes. 

One case of a doctor with a stiff 
knee joint—not chronic—cured in one 
treatment of fifteen minutes, after 
which we walked ten miles up a can- 
yon in Oregon. 

One case, —the most remarkable,—a 
middle-aged woman, blind for twenty 

61 


SUGGES TIO 


years, who during all that time had 
not seen so much as an outline of her 
children; after two treatments of one- 
half hour each she counted the num- 
ber of people in the room, described 
the color of a dress, and left the room 
unaided. Sight was restored and re- 
tained until a serious accident befell 
her. 

She had been told, by another 
method of treatment, that she was not 
blind except as she thought she was 
blind. This mode of treatment, she 
said, did not appeal to her common 
sense. I assured her that we would 
waste no time in denying the evidence 
of the senses. She was indeed blind; 
but in her special case there was no 
need of her remaining so. There was 
a power, not extraneous, not in me, 
but in herself—a God-given power. 
This power when awakened could and 
would overcome the physical defect. 
Faith I must have; her faith; mine 
was sufficient. Doubts and fears 
and worries cannot live in the same 
room with faith. I further assured 
her that the linking of her faith with 
my implicit faith in that inherent 
power would, when sufficiently ener- 

62 


SUGGESTION 


gized, restore her sight. ‘‘ And it was 
BO sce ; 

I have cited but a few out of the 
many extreme cases that have come 
directly under my care. This I have 
done with no spirit of braggadocio, 
but as an encouragement to those who 
heal and to those who are in need of 
healing. Insomnia, constipation, ner- 
vousness, dyspepsia, the functioning 
of every organ and gland of the body; 
these, all these, as well as mental con- 
ditions, yield readily to the power of 
suggestion properly applied. 

Recognizing, as I do, the necessity 
of having the objective mind in abey- 
ance, receptive to the suggestions, I 
always place the subject under very 
light hypnosis when the condition 
cannot be otherwise obtained. During 
this time I make my suggestions as 
the case demands. 

As a rule I do not consider the deep 
hypnotic sleep either necessary or de- 
sirable for suggestions. The difficul- 
ties lie largely in the objective mind; 
therefore, to pass the subject into a 
state of objective unconsciousness 
would be to address the subjective di- 
rectly, and thus lose the opportunity 

63 


SUGGESTION 


to strengthen the objective, the seat 
of the difficulty. I even go so far as 
to suggest to the subjects that they do 
not cross the border-line separating 
the conscious from the unconscious, 
unless I wish to pass them into the 
clairvoyant condition. 

Another point I wish to make clear. 
I do not think it necessary to know 
objectively the exact cause of the dis- 
ease. Of course the cause must be re- 
moved ere the effect can be removed. 
The subjective knows, and if you 
yourself are sufficiently passive your 
subjective will direct your thought 
and words to fit the case. 

Every treatment should be a men- 
tal, spiritual, and physical uplift. If 
your soul (Psyche) is not in the work, 
you would better drop the lesser part, 
therapy, of whatever form it may be; — 
but the combination —psycho-therapy 
—is the greatest remedial agent the 
world has ever known, 


64 


NOIS-URBANA 


